City Of Hawkinsville

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City Of Hawkinsville (Shipwreck)
IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)

Location:	Dixie County, Florida, USA
Nearest city:	Old Town, Florida
Coordinates:	29°36′25″N, 82°58′14″W
Established:	May 31, 2001
Governing body:	National Park Service / Florida Department of Environmental Protection

The City of Hawkinsville was a paddle steamer constructed in Georgia in 1886. Sold in 1900 to a Tampa, Florida company, it delivered cargo and lumber along the Suwannee River. Eventually rendered obsolete by the advent of railroads in the region, it was abandoned in the middle of the Suwannee in 1922.

It became the third Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve when it opened to the public in 1992. This was followed on May 31, 2001 with its addition to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is located in Dixie County, 100 yards south of the Old Town railroad trestle (which is part of the Nature Coast Trail State Park).

1 History
- 1.1 Georgia
- 1.2 Florida
2 Today
3 Admission and hours
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Georgia

In 1886, the Hawkinsville (Georgia) Deepwater Boat Lines had the wooden-hulled City of Hawkinsville built for them in Abbeville, Georgia.

After 14 years of service, they sold it to the Gulf Transportation Company of Tampa.

[edit] Florida

The largest (141 feet long by 30 feet wide) steamboat stationed on the Suwannee, The City of Hawkinsville transported lumber and supplies from Branford to Cedar Key for the next two decades. Some of the supplies would include construction materials for the railroads that would end the need for the steamboat itself.

By 1922, only able to be run at a loss, the ship's captain sank the City of Hawkinsville in the Suwannee, on May 19. It was the last steamboat to ply the river.

[edit] Today

The wreck of the steamboat has become part of the river's ecosystem, and was added to the Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve system in 1992. Most of it is remarkably intact, and rests on a ledge in the middle of the Suwannee, able to be seen from the river's surface. However, diving is only allowed for those with advanced open water certification, and venturing within the wreck itself is not permitted.